From Blue to Purple 



color and perfume, one would suppose ; yet it may be even now 

 slowly perfecting its way toward an ideal of which we see a part 

 only complete, "in deep, rich, moist woods and thickets the ses- 

 sile' trillium blooms in April or May, from Pennsylvania, Ohio, 

 and Minnesota southward nearly to the Gulf. 



Larger Blue Flag; Blue Iris; Fleur-de-lis; 

 Flower-de-luce 



{Iris versicolor) Iris family 



Flowers — Several, 2 to t in. long, violet-blue variegated with yellow, 

 green, or white, and purple veined. Six divisions of the peri- 

 anth : 3 outer ones spreading, recurved ; i of them bearded, 

 much longer and wider than the 3 erect inner divisions ; all 

 united into a short tube. Three stamens under 3 overhang- 

 ing petal-like divisions of the style, notched at end ; under 

 each notch is a thin plate, smooth on one side, rough and 

 moist (stigma) on side turned away from anther. Stem: 2 to 

 3 ft. high, stout, straight, almost circular, sometimes branch- 

 ing above. Leaves: Erect, sword-shaped, shorter than stem, 

 somewhat hoary, from }^ to i in. wide, folded, and in a 

 compact fiat cluster at base ; bracts usually longer than stem 

 of (lower. Fruit : Oblong capsule, not prominently j-lobed, 

 and with 2 rows of round, flat seeds closely packed in each 

 cell. Rootstock : Creeping, horizontal, fleshy. 



Preferred Habitat — Marshes, wet meadows. 



Flowering Season — May — ^July. 



Distribution — Newfoundland and Manitoba to Arkansas and 

 Florida. 



"The fleur-de-lys, which is the flower of chivalry," says 

 Ruskin, "has a sword for its leaf and a lily for its heart." When 

 that young and pious Crusader, Louis VII., adopted it for the 

 emblem of his house, spelling was scarcely an exact science, and 

 the fieiir-de-Louis soon became corrupted into its present form. 

 Doubtless the royal flower was the white iris, and as // is the 

 Celtic for white, there is room for another theory as to the origin 

 of the name. It is our far more regal looking, but truly demo- 

 cratic blossom, jostling its fellows in the marshes, that is indeed 

 "born in the purple." 



When Napoleon wished to pose as the true successor of those 

 ancient French kings whose territory included the half of 

 Europe — ignoring every Louis who ever sat on the throne, for 

 their very name and emblem had become odious to the people — 

 he discarded the fleiir-dc-lis, to replace it with golden bees, 



